1.8 Distributor Adjustment

[kronus]

Alright, so I'm pretty sure that this is in the correct forum, because it deals with adjusting the spark advance. So here goes.

I was under the hood today doing general maintenance, and I was remembering how my friend was messed with the distributor when I first purchased the car. Well, I was messing around with it and I noticed that there are two marks on opposite sides of the distributor that I'm assuming are for adjusting spark advance.

You can only make a major adjustment in one direction; if you were looking towards the engine bay from the front, you'd be able to make the most adjustment by turning the distributor to the right.

If I turned the dist. all the way to the right and gave it throttle, it seemed as if the response was MUCH quicker, but also i heard what sounded like marbles in a glass jar. I couldn't remember what exactly that sound was supposed to represent, but I did remember that it wasn't good.

I found the limit where I could squeeze more "response" out of the engine without hearing the "marbles." So what was I adjusting? Spark advance? Any info would be great. I just would like to know what I was timkering with.

 

[1stGenRocks]

yea thats spark advance. the marbles sound was preignition aka knock. when i had my 1.8 i set it as advanced as i could but then i had to adjust it when the wheather changed so keep an eye on it.

if you run higher octane gas you can advance it more too.

 

[kronus]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info. One more question though. I know that in a FI engine, knock occurs when there is a too lean mixture in the combustion chamber, but how could knock be created in an N/A engine such as the 1.8?

Also, I know that depending on the other mods done to the car, more power will be created as there is more advance. Is there any known multiple for advancing as much as possible?

 

[1stGenRocks]

whagt your actually doing advancing the spark timing is making the plug fire earlier in the combustion cycle. if it goes too early the gas will light and it will be fighting the piston thats still coming up. there isnt really any way to know where yours will peak at since it depends on the gas, spark plugs, plug gap, air temp, etc....